Biden is planning to visit Ireland next month for Good Friday Deal

EXCLUSIVE: Biden is planning to visit Belfast and Dublin NEXT MONTH to mark 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement after UK and EU removed Brexit trade hurdle by carving out The Windsor deal

• VIPs are expected in Belfast on April 10 to mark 25th anniversary of peace deal
• The White House is planning for Biden to visit Ireland and Northern Ireland
• It comes after a key political disagreement between the UK and EU was resolved

Planning is under way for President Joe Biden to visit Dublin and Belfast next month as Ireland and the United Kingdom mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement that ended decades of violence, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Biden has made much of his Irish roots and has let it be known that he wanted to make the trip as president.

However, wrangling between the United Kingdom and the European Union over Northern Ireland’s trade status caused a diplomatic logjam that would have made a high-profile presidential visit politically problematic.

That obstacle was removed this week when Britain and the E.U. agreed the Windsor Framework.

And two sources told DailyMail.com that planning had kicked into high gear for a visit, although a final decision will not be taken until next week. 

President Joe Biden has made clear that he wants to visit Ireland as president. Planning has begun for a trip to Dublin and Belfast in April, 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement

Biden arriving in County Mayo in 2016 during his last visit to Ireland in an official capacity. The then vice president spent six days in the country, visiting Dublin, Mayo and Louth

Just try stopping him! 

The itinerary has yet to be finalized but it is understood it would include stops in the Irish capital Dublin and in Belfast, which will be the center of Good Friday Agreement celebrations. 

The agreement was signed on April 10, 1998. It cemented Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom, and set up a new government for the province, while allowing that it could join the Republic of Ireland if that was the wish of a majority. 

It brought an end to 30 years of armed struggle against British rule. 

Biden is among the American politicians who can claim a role in helping push through the deal. He was a a member of the Senate foreign relations committee which nudged the Clinton administration to deploy its political clout and broker the deal. 

His Irish heritage has been a frequent touchstone for his political speeches, and he has described how his family left their homeland ‘because of what the Brits were doing.’

Last year, on St. Patrick’s day he set out what his Irish heritage gave to him and other Irish emigrants.

‘Hope is what brought forth on the Emerald Isle a nation of poets and patriots, saints, scholars, artists, and engineers,’ he said at the White House. 

‘Hope kept us looking toward the far horizon. It urges us over every obstacle. It tells us to try again when we fall short, to rise each time we fall.’

President Joe Biden hosted the traditional St Patrick’s Day shamrock presentation ceremony in the East Room of the White House least year, when he riffed on his Irish heritage

https://youtube.com/watch?v=oKOlj8p3OFg%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US

Biden last visited Ireland in an official capacity in 2016 as vice president. That visit included stops in Dublin, Mayo, and Louth — the capital plus the two counties of his ancestors.

And he has repeatedly told Irish politicians and relatives that he will be back as president.

Soon after he took office, Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin said: ‘When I invited President Biden to Ireland, he just said, “Try and keep me out.” So it won’t be any lack of enthusiasm on his side.’

Rumours have repeatedly swirled through the Irish media that a presidential visit was coming. 

And diplomats saw the 25th anniversary of the peace deal as the perfect moment.

The only stumbling block was a tussle between the UK and the EU over trade arrangements after Brexit.

In order to keep the border between northern and southern Ireland open—in line with the Good Friday Agreement— customs checks were imposed on goods traveling from the British mainland to Northern Ireland, placing a huge burden on businesses there.

The biggest pro-UK unionist party withdrew from power-sharing agreements in protest, causing the suspension of Northern Ireland’s devolved assembly.

King Charles III receives European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during an audience at Windsor Castle on Monday after a new Brexit deal was agreed

Politicians have not sat in Northern Ireland’s Stormont assembly building since last year after the biggest unionist party walked out in protest at post-Brexit trade arrengements

Biden with restaurant staff outside Fitzpatrick’s Restaurant and Pub after a family lunch, in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland, during his 2016 visit

Joe Blewitt and his wife Deirdre drink champagne underneath a mural of their third cousin Joe Biden as locals celebrate Biden’s election in the County Mayo town of Ballina in 2020

Officials feared a Biden visit would send the wrong message if the deadlock had not been resolved. 

But this week brought a major step forward when British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak agreed a deal with the E.U. that goods staying in Northern Ireland need not be subject to any special checks. Only goods bound for the Republic from Northern Ireland would go through a ‘red lane’ of extra inspections, under the terms of the Windsor Framework.

Biden was quick to hail the deal as an ‘essential step to ensuring that the hard-earned peace and progress of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement is preserved and strengthened.’

‘It required hard work and determination, and an unfailing faith that a better future was possible,’ he added. 

‘Today, an entire generation of young people has grown up knowing only possibility and growing prosperity—the hard-earned dividend of peace. 

‘I am deeply proud of the role the United States has played for decades to help achieve, preserve, and strengthen that peace enshrined in the Agreement.’

The White House and the British embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Irish Embassy declined to respond. 

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